Fifty favorite books

[altivo]

Long day, horrid meeting this morning. Headache finally going away, thank goodness. Still raining.

I want to share something new, discovered thanks to waywind and t_o_book_club. That is a nifty site called LibraryThing. It's a social site for readers that allows you to enter and comment on the books you are currently reading, or those in your personal library, or your favorites from anywhere. Then you can find out what other books are favored by people who like the same ones you like. You can read others' reviews of your favorites, and discuss them in a forum-like environment. Anonymity is entirely possible if you wish, you need only choose a nickname and a password. If you want to register and pay a nominal fee, you can add as many books to your list as you wish, but free accounts can have up to 200, which is a pretty reasonable number if you just list favorites or current reading.

Adding books to your list is easy. You can select them from those already added by others, or pull information from the Library of Congress or Amazon or a number of other library catalogs, or you can enter author, title, and publication information yourself. Assign keyword tags, add your review if you wish, even display a scan of the cover. Once you have a dozen or so titles entered and rated, you can start to find out what other books might interest you, based on the choices of others who like the same ones you do. It's fun and easy.

Take a look: One Hundred of 'Tivo's favorite books.

[Edit: Critical mass appears to be somewhere around 65 titles. At 70 titles entered, the recommendations based on what other people like who liked my books are nearly congruent with my own tastes and collection. Now I'm going to have to enter hundreds in order to eliminate all the suggestions of books I've already read. ;p It's also interesting to see what I have that is so far unique or nearly so in the database.]

Comments

[corelog.livejournal.com]

*snuggles* Long days and horrid meetings are ugh. :( At least they're over now. *nuzzles*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oooh, a cuddly wuffy! Don't mind if I do. *squeeze*

Hmm, who gets to spoon whom first? ;p

[corelog.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Horsie gets to spoon wuffy first, of course! :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*runs to get a BIG spoon*

OK, that's good, as long as we trade after a while. ;D

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Ooo! Tasty! What a great way to find related materials. "Quark and the Jaguar" leads to all sorts of goodies on complexity and self-organizing systems. Joy! I never knew Schrodinger's cat had kittens! Joy! Of course... *sigh* I'll never find em in a used book store and I'll never have the cash to order em. *sorrow!* Will my shelves ever be complete? Duh! Not a chance! Guess I'll keep buying lottery tickets. After all, somebody gotta win the damn things.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Check out AbeBooks and you might be surprised what can be found for a couple of bucks.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

I did! I laughed! I cried! I peed my pants! Woof, I smell a spending spree! Shit, I've NEVER regretted spending money on books. Eat rice for a month? No problem! I got lots of spices and basmati never gets boring.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Use ABE carefully and you'll do very well for your money. You can select only Canadian sellers to save on shipping probably. If you try to group purchases from the same vendor, that will reduce shipping. And if you don't have a credit card, most will be happy to hold a book for you while you send them a check or money order. On the whole, the members of ABE are extremely helpful and friendly. Have fun. I've ordered books from as far away as Australia (rare ones) and had them arrive in a week or two. Purchases from within the US and Canada are a snap.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Mmmm! Book addicts on crack! Must shred the credit card! *sigh*

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

I might have to make an account on LibraryThing, just for the novelty. I blogged it almost a year ago and thought it was nifty then. Maybe it would get me back into reading books again. I spend so much time working on books that I hardly ever pick one up for pleasure anymore.

Have you discovered whether LibraryThing will let one export a catalog or print it in a convenient format?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There is a print function, but I haven't tried it. I know it can import lists of books from some other formats, but I haven't tried that either. I've mostly been entering mine by typing in the ISBN or LC card number, which is quite adequate for this type of thing. A few had no cover photo, so I've scanned the cover and uploaded it. I've been picking faves from the shelves in my bedroom and office, that I keep where I can return to them again and again. There are lots more to go, and I'll hit the 200 limit in a few days if I continue, so I went ahead and sent in a check for a permanent membership. I couldn't get stupid PayPal to accept my credit card, which is not a new development. I hate PayPal.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

Hmm. This requires that I think.

Hmm.

XD

I'm full of pain meds at the moment, after tooth repair, but I notice
your choices for faves are not /to/ off my own.

At least you like Cherryh.

^_^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

At least you like Cherryh.

Well, the Chanur books and the Nighthorse books anyway. Some of her others that I've read were a bit on the weird side even for me, or just plain too violent and I put them down unfinished.